mary osmundsen
blue organisms with red tips by Mary Osmundsen.
This is an original drawing. In fact, Mary Osmundsen only sells originals in her shop at the moment and for that reason alone hers is a rare place @ Etsy.
I stumbled upon those fascinating drawings about a week ago and I immediately knew I wanted to post about them. They have this strange compelling beauty which seems to emanate as much from their “alien” nature as from their extraordinary beautiful color palette – I am so in love with that muted earthy palette! I find myself constanty returning to them and truly they are much more complex than they may seem at first.
organism with coiled neck, original drawing.
Here is a biological world, a world of “organisms”, “cells”, “pods”, etc. but – and here lies the magic of it – you may well see just what you want in them. I see extraterrestrial organisms, life at work in the Universe…
You can read Mary Osmundsen’s artist statement @ The Drawing Center’s Viewing Program. (You have to enter her name to reach her portfolio, statement and bio).
See her complete portfolio on her Flickr.
She will also be selling her art @ mash handmade, a “brick and mortar” shop in Kansas City.
the patched creatures of cocoon designs
Quilts Secret Friend n° 3 by Cocoon Designs.
Cocoon Designs makes amazing creatures out of old recycled pieces of sweaters. They are hand patched and OOAK. Some are even made to custom like these mushrooms or those ones.
I really like them ! Here’s another “pointy ears creature” :
Cocoon Designs on Flickr.
myra and the sasquatch by cate anevski
Myra and the Sasquatch by Cate Anevski.
Haven’t you always wanted your own pet sasquatch?
This is a print of an original artwork.
© 2007 Cate Anevski
my point ears by the maple ridge
my point ears by The Maple Ridge.
This is an original watercolor and pencil drawing. Just love the description :
is this a Halloween costume or just his favorite pair of pajamas? either way i think he looks great in them. pointy ear-sleeves and stripy arms and legs. is he yelling “trick-or-treat” to his neighborhood cat-lady that lives across the street or whining because he doesn’t want to go to bed without having a cookie as wide as his arms are spread? whatever the case may be i bet i know what you’re thinking. you’re thinking how much you want to squeeze him ’til he poops.
I also love this one a lot :
love me (detail).
monster-rama by tyson bodnarchuk
Ghost Back by Tyson Bodnarchuck @ etsy.
One of his watercolors was on the front page of Etsy today, and even though I love color so much, I felt more attracted towards these other two. They are original watercolors and part of a series called “Monster-rama”.
Tyson Bodnarchuck lives in Montreal where he co-owns and curates a gallery called Headquarters Galerie & Boutique.
He has a personal blog too.
pounce #1 : be happy now @ etsy
Baby wuth mum by Be Happy Now @ Etsy.
I discovered this great tool of Etsy only very recently and I’ve found a great artist today using it so it has inspired me to start a series of articles.
It’s called “pounce” and you can either browse through shops that have not yet made their first sale (the official line is : “Recently updated shops that have not yet had a sale”, so I do not know if it works with shops that have been here a long time and have not sold anything…) or else browse through shops that have just made a sale. I chose the first and stumbled upon Be Happy Now and I love her sense of color. She uses watercolors a lot, but not only for there is also this amazing carving painting that I absolutely adore :
This particular one listed there is called “Original Carving Painting” and I was confused at first with the word “original” associated with “carving” so I asked Jenny exactly what she meant by that and she replied that it was the first one made with the metal plate. So more are to come, which is good news for of course just as I was writing this article, 4 items including the ones I put photos of had already been sold !
Her prices are unbelivably cheap and I think she could really sell her original watercolors and her other artwork for more…
She also has a Flickr.
100 great artists @ etsy you might want to visit…
So last week I got the most crazy idea that I would compile a list of 100 artists @ Etsy and I immediately set to work.
I wanted to write a few words about the “why” & “how” of the affair, but I realized nobody would actually care, so to keep things simple let’s just say that I have discovered many great and talented artists through Etsy, and it is getting more and more difficult each day to browse through their shops since there is no way to tag or organize your favorites into categories on the site and I figured a “memo” or “post-it” article would be of great use, not just for me or for people already familiar with Etsy, but also for people who would like to discover new artists but do not have the time to extensively browse the internet or Etsy for that matter….
the art of junkyard sam
TreeSpot (limited edition print) by Junkyard Sam @ Etsy.
While “searching for mushrooms” the other day, I discovered this great artist Junkyard Sam @ Etsy.
Even though I am very much attacted to Lowbrow Art, his work at first sight might not exactly be what I am more drawn to for it has a kind of “cleanliness” about it – probably due to the use of computer in the process as well as to the fact that Junkyard Sam used to work in the game industry – which might have deterred me a bit.
However, examining more carefully the works presented @ Etsy, I could not help but feel something compelling in his art. There is indeed definitely a universe here, a brand new world created and opening before us, for us to walk in and encounter strange creatures… And if you read Junkyard Sam’s introductory words which go :
Welcome to the land of “Tong Picnic”, a world where strange people befriend animals to travel across bizarre lands full of good citizens and scary monsters!
plus the titles of his works as well as the descriptions, you realize that although this universe might be unknown to you, it does exist to some and is indeed very real, since the land and the creatures that inhabit it all have names.
Meet T’nip Whirl :
A Portrait of T’nip Whirl (limited edition print).